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Driftwood sparks search for Amundsen's icy grave

MORE than 70 years after Roald Amundsen crashed into the icy waters of the Arctic, Norway is to mount an expedition to find the final resting place of the celebrated explorer.

Amundsen, who made his name after winning the historic race to the South Pole in 1911, in which his British rival Robert Falcon Scott perished, continued his ventures after the first world war. A plane with the Norwegian aboard disappeared in 1928 and there were few clues to the location of its wreck until a piece of driftwood nailed to a remote log cabin on a small island off Spitsbergen was recently re-examined.

The wood may have been part of the tail of Amundsen’s aircraft. Taken together with another piece of wreckage found in the archipelago by a fishing boat 70 years ago, the Norwegians say they now have enough evidence to warrant a search by mini-submarine.